Washington, France: Traffic Cameras Swiped, Smashed

Washington, France: Traffic Cameras Swiped, Smashed

Seattle, Washington red light camera disappears as a French motorist hurls a mobile speed camera against the ground.

Vigilantes grabbed a red light camera around April 5 in Seattle, Washington. American Traffic Solutions, a photo enforcement vendor based in Arizona, operated the camera on South McClellan Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way South. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the automated ticketing machine had been knocked over on April 3 in an accident that the device failed to prevent. Someone later hauled away the machine before the private, for-profit firm could retrieve it. Police followed up a lead in the case that turned out to be a dead end.

A speed camera in Vigneux-de-Bretagne, France was smashed on Friday morning. A fifty-year-old motorist passed through a police-manned speed trap at an alleged 85 km/h in a 50 zone (53 MPH in a 31 zone). The driver returned to the location, grabbed the 3000 euro (US $4000) handheld lidar camera unit and hurled it several yards away, Le Parisien reported. The man was taken into custody and released.